A wide variety of mops are known in the prior art, such mops generally having a single sponge-like absorptive element or a bundle of absorptive fibers for holding water and cleaning solutions in cleaning applications. Sponge mops, while typically well-suited for such applications, tend to have less scrubbing efficiency than do mops with fiber bundles which can reach into small openings and such, as well as hold more solution on a weight to weight basis. Moreover, sponge-like materials tend to snag on surface irregularities, becoming damaged. As such, sponge mops are less effective in applications where considerable cleansing force is required, such as in washing a vehicle surface. In such an applications, water holding capacity of the mop is only important in so far as delivering soapy water to the surface. Once the soapy water has been delivered, the cleansing and scrubbing capacity of the mop becomes more important than the mop's ability to remove liquid from the surface.
Well known mops-comprising fiber bundles or strings are in common use. These tend to droop and bunch together when soaked in water, resulting in a relatively small and uneven portion of the fibers contacting the work surface. While a certain amount of unevenness is desirable between the mop and the surface to obtain an effective scrubbing action, such bunched together fibers or strings have a small effective sweeping width so that many strokes of such a mop must be used to clean the surface adequately, making such a mop more difficult and time consuming to use. Moreover, such mops tend to have rigid mop head structures, typically made of metal, that can damage the surface to be cleaned whenever inadvertent contact is made. Further, such mops tend to include hardware assemblies for wringing water out of the mop. Such hardware is unnecessary and undesirable when washing a vehicle since the vehicle is usually rinsed with a hose and towel dried and contact with metal portions of the mop tend to scratch the surface.
Unlike fiber-bundle mops, mops composed of strips of felt-like material do not tend to bunch together during moping. However, such strips do tend to droop when soaked in water, which, as with the fiber string mops, can result in a problem with bunching. As such, even though such felt strips are effective scrubbing implements, the effectiveness of this type of mop for cleaning vehicles and the like may be inefficient and problematic.
Mops with multiple layers and multiple cleaning fingers have been created to remedy these problems. Such mops have a relatively large sweep width and allow for effective scrubbing action suitable for cleaning the surface of a vehicle. Examples of such mops are seen in Brockmeier et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,779,044, Rose U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,921 and Visman et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,277. Unfortunately, while the structure of these prior art mops may be advantageous for cleaning vehicles and other such large surface area applications, their effectiveness is significantly limited by the materials of which they are constructed. As disclosed, Brockmeier's mop device is constructed of heavy cotton drilling, unbleached muslin, cotton outing flannel or other such soft fabrics, Rose's device is constructed of a combination of material with a high coefficient of friction and a synthetic loose-weave net material, and Vishman is constructed out of a highly resilient and compressible artificial sponge-foam such as regenerated cellulose sponge. While these materials may serve the intended cleaning functions of the devices, they do not provide the necessary softness, resiliency, flexibility, durability, scratch resistance, and high water absorption and retention needed for effectively and uniformly cleaning the critical painted surfaces of vehicles.
Thus there is a clear need for an improved mop device suitable for thoroughly cleaning the surface of a vehicle. Such a needed device would have an multi-layered structure with each of the layers secured in the center portion and multiple cleaning fingers extending outwardly. The mop would be constructed of a material formulation providing the proper thickness, tensile strength, weight and absorption needed for the intended use of the device. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.